In compression/decompression (codec) systems, compression efficiency and video quality are important performance criteria. For example, visual quality is an important aspect of the user experience in many video applications and compression efficiency impacts the amount of memory storage needed to store video files and/or the amount of bandwidth needed to transmit and/or stream video content. For example, a video encoder compresses video information so that more information can be sent over a given bandwidth or stored in a given memory space or the like. The compressed signal or data may then be decoded via a decoder that decodes or decompresses the signal or data for display to a user. In most implementations, higher visual quality with greater compression is desirable.
In some contexts, low bitrate video encoding may be advantageous, particularly for real time video streaming services and the like. A current technique for providing low bitrate video encoding includes increasing the quantization parameter (QP) to reduce the bitrate as needed. However, in some examples, the required low bitrate cannot be achieved even with the highest QP value. Additionally, multi-pass encoder may provide a skip mode to provide lower bitrate encoding. However, such multi-pass techniques may not be provided in one-pass hardware encoding implementations. Furthermore, conventional rate based skip selection techniques may cause subjective quality problem such as jittering if B-pictures, interlaced fields, or temporal scalability are implemented.
It may be advantageous to low bitrate video encoding with high subjective video quality. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present improvements have been needed. Such improvements may become critical as the desire to compress video data becomes more widespread.